Quadrant wins HFCL Infotel portfolio

a period of four months, HFCL Infotel, a venture of the HFCL Group, has completed its search for a creative partner. It has appointed Quadrant Communications as its creative agency.

HFCL Infotel offers fixed line telephony, mobile telephony, broadband services, customised data services and value added services. As reported by afaqs! in August, a pitch for the brand was called when the company parted ways with its incumbent agency, Vyas Gianetti Creative (VGC).

Confirming the news to afaqs!, Vijay Singh Bainsla, general manager, marketing, HFCL Infotel, reveals that Quadrant Communications has won the business after a multi-agency pitch which had agencies such as TBWA, Brand Planet Elephant and Crayons Advertising in the fray. The ad spend for the brand is in the region of Rs 5-10 crore.

Talking about the way ahead for the brand, Rajan Narayan, president and chief executive officer, Quadrant Communications, tells afaqs!, "All I can reveal at this point is that the campaign is an attitudinal one." The agency is in the process of setting up office in the capital to primarily oversee this account. The Delhi branch will also service other clients once a team is in place, says Narayan.

As of now, Quadrant has two offices - in Mumbai and Pune. Among the accounts it handles are Mahindra & Mahindra's First Choice, Godrej Fair Glow, Tata Mutual Fund and Kirloskar Group.

HFCL has two brands: Connect, the fixed landline and broadband brand, and Ping, the mobile services brand. In 2007, VGC was awarded the creative duties for both. The agency was also responsible for putting in place an identity for Ping, which was launched that year.

Connect was launched in 2000 and Lowe was the custodian of the brand for the initial five years. Everest won its creative duties in 2005.

Ping has a subscriber base of 2.25 lakh currently, while Connect has 2.61 lakh subscribers.

HFCL Infotel exists in a single circle - Punjab - and is looking at expansion. Combining both mobile and fixed line telephony, the company holds 4 per cent of the subscriber market share in Punjab. BSNL has the largest market share (25 per cent) in subscriber base, followed by Airtel (24 per cent), Spice (20 per cent), Vodafone (12 per cent) and Reliance and Tata Indicom (8 per cent each).